A fluid flow process (flow process) includes any process that involves the flow of fluid through pipes, ducts, or other conduits, as well as through fluid control devices such as pumps, valves, orifices, heat exchangers, and the like. Flow processes are found in many different industries such as the oil and gas industry, refining, food and beverage industry, chemical and petrochemical industry, pulp and paper industry, power generation, pharmaceutical industry, and water and wastewater treatment industry. The fluid within the flow process may be a single phase fluid (e.g., gas, liquid or liquid/liquid mixture) and/or a multi-phase mixture (e.g. paper and pulp slurries or other solid/liquid mixtures). The multi-phase mixture may be a two-phase liquid/gas mixture, a solid/gas mixture or a solid/liquid mixture, gas entrained liquid or a three-phase mixture.
Various sensing technologies exist for measuring various physical parameters of single and/or multiphase fluids in an industrial flow process. Such physical parameters include, for example, volumetric flow rate, composition, consistency, density, and mass flow rate.
In certain sensing applications, such as in industrial flow processes, it may be desirable to sense one or many parameters at a particular location throughout the industrial flow process. It may also be desirable to measure different parameters at different times. For example, it may initially be desirable to sense volumetric flow rate at a particular location throughout an industrial flow process when plant first comes on line. Alternatively, it may be desirable to sense different parameters of interest at a later time, such as composition, density, and mass flow rate. It may also be desirable to monitor or diagnose various devices in the flow process, such as valves, pumps and motors.
The various different types of parameters that are measured throughout an industrial processing plant requires separate meters or flow measuring devices for each parameter. As one can appreciate, the need to monitor numerous steps in a process becomes very costly in the operation of the plant. It would be advantageous in the operation of industrial processes to deploy a flow measuring device that is capable of selectably measuring a number of different parameters of a system.